Scores

17 October, 2010

So two FIFA members walk into a bar and ask for bribes. Well, guess by now that you realize it isn't a joke.

The Sunday Times (UK) has two ExCo members on the Bid Committee for 2018/2022 on video telling fake US businessmen that they want certain favors (Nigeria wants $800K, cash, "for artificial turf fields") in exchange for "confidence that you want the WC in your country".

Not surprising as Nigeria has been rocked by scandal over its team as of late (and government interference). What would be surprising is FIFA actually fining and dropping the Nigerian member as Nigeria has said that its soccer federation is almost completely corrupt anyways, yet had FIFA threaten to drop them from all competitions if these esteemed members weren't returned to power...

In a side note, the US dropped its 2018 bid the same day that England dropped its 2022 bid (one would assume for each other's vote).

Adamu [Nigeria's FIFA VP] had offered a "guarantee" that he would vote for the Americans in the 2018 vote, but said they would be his second preference in '22.

"I've already given my word to some other bid," he was heard saying on the Sunday Times website.

The Sunday Times, which published videos on its subscription-based website, says Temarii wanted $2.3 million to fund a football academy in Auckland. He also said backers of two other unidentified bidding countries had offered the FIFA vice president $10 million to $12 million to his Oceania confederation.

If you, like me, understand "given word" as they gave me a damn good bribe, then, yeah, that sounds like this WC bid will be completely on the up and up. The other competitors for 2022 are Qatar, Australia, South Korea and Japan. Since each of those is outside Oceania and conveniently after the S. Korean challenger to Blatter's power recently dropped out of the race for FIFA President, we here at TSI are going to assume that one of those bids is South Korea, and the other, we're just speculating, is Qatar as they literally have cash to throw around.

It must be noted that Blatter has the tendency to change his mind frequently as to "requirements" for WC bidding as he said in the last 10 years alone that 1. Ever continent must rotate 2. Every other Cup has to be in Europe 3. Only established countries can host (by establish, he means those who don't have to completely build up their infrastructure, rather just upgrade it). That said, Russia is still officially in for the 2018 and 2022 bid and while Blatter has said that Europe gets every other one, Russia technically covers Asia and Europe (landmass, not major cities) so he could be referring to Russia getting a good shot at the 2022 bid (or being one of the bribery candidates).